The present invention relates to a mechanism for assisting a user in navigating a Webpage.
Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer™ of Microsoft™ or Chrome™ of Google™, become application programs indispensable to a computer device. Navigation of Webpages or electronic documents is no longer limited to a personal computer or a notebook computer. Webpages can be read on plenty of commercially available handheld devices. For example, Web browser Safari™ or Web browser Opera Mini™ can be installed on iPhone™ of Apple™.
All the aforesaid Web browsers allow a user to adjust a display ratio of a Webpage. If a Webpage cannot be fully presented in a display area (or window) at a display ratio, the Web browsers provide a scroll bar for scrolling the Webpage vertically and horizontally so as to present every portion of the Webpage.
Shiguang Liu, Hua-Jun Zeng, Zheng Chen, Chuangbai Xiao, Wei-Ying Ma, KNM: A Novel Intelligent User Interface for Webpage Navigation, AIRS 2005: 641-646, and U.S. Patent Application US2007/0219945 propose a key-phrase navigation map (KNM) whereby a key-phrase in a Webpage is identified by an algorithm of relevancy and then provided for users as a reference in browsing the Webpage. However, the method is dependent upon whether the algorithm is appropriately designed and is likely to omit certain details.